Christmas in October? Milestone Lung Transplant Patient Celebrates Two Holidays at Once.

November 3, 2003

MADISON, WI – It may just be the only house in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where Halloween orange and black live side by side with Christmas red and green.

David Sabie, 38, who has been waiting for a new pair of lungs for more than two years, had a sense that his time to receive the transplant would be very soon, says his wife Lynn. So, Sabie – not sure he’d be strong enough to decorate the family home for Christmas – got out all the Christmas decorations last weekend and put them up right next to the pumpkins and goblins.

“We’re done for Christmas!” reports Lynn, who accompanied David to Madison for the Oct. 22 surgery. Sabie is the 100th patient to receive a double (bilateral) lung transplant through the University of Wisconsin Hospital organ transplant program.

He is currently listed in stable condition at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Madison. Sabie’s transplant surgeon, Robert Love, MD, says Sabie’s post-surgery progress has been excellent.

Sabie required a lung transplant because his lungs were destroyed by common variable immune deficiency (CVID), a disorder in which patients have low levels of certain antibodies in the blood. Most, like Sabie, suffer recurrent bacterial infections that in some cases cause severe and irreversible damage to the lungs.

“He’s never smoked a day in his life,” notes Lynn, “but both of his lungs were infected all the time. About two years ago, his doctor put him on oxygen and recommended that Dave quit working. That was traumatic in all sorts of ways.”

Fall was often a time when David would become sicker and need to stay indoors, giving up favorite sports and outdoor activities. Lynn says their Sioux Falls neighbors have been extremely helpful in supporting the family in all sorts of ways, and they are very grateful. She’s also learning that too few people are interested in being organ donors if tragedy strikes, and she hopes David’s story will encourage more to sign the donor card and share their wishes with their families.

David’s release date from the hospital is not certain yet, but the family hopes he’ll be home for the holidays – all of them.

The lung transplant program at UW Hospital is one of the nation’s largest and most successful with particular focus on cystic fibrosis patients. Robert Love, MD, is internationally recognized as a leading surgeon and researcher. UW Hospital organ transplant surgeons performed their first double-lung transplant in May 1992 for Ellen Todl, who is still doing well. The transplant program also provides heart, kidney, pancreas, liver and small intestine transplants.

“The success of our program is founded largely on an excellent team of surgical and nursing staff,” says Love.

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